Amelie was the biggest foreign film of the 2001 season, and there is no doubt why that is. The film is a feel-good experience, with a bunch of cute scenes, a happy ending, and a lead actress who looks so very cute and adorable. The film is not the amazing classic that some people say, but it’ s still a pretty nice film.

Amelie is a cute French girl with a very odd life. As a youth, she has to deal with the rather unusual, to say the least, death of her mother, as well as, for a while, a mistaken belief that she has the power to affect the world around her, for the worst. This happens when, after receiving a camera as a gift, she witnesses a minor traffic accident while standing outside fiddling with the camera. One of the drivers gets upset at her and says that she caused the accident because of the camera! After a while, she figures out that he was just messing with her mind, and takes a very unusual form of revenge.

All these details about her youth are very important, because, later on in her life, Amelie discovers that she may indeed have the ability to change people’s lives, and sets about being the Good Samaritan of Paris. This life of selflessness begins when she stumbles upon an old box inside the wall of her apartment. The box, containing old childhood knick-knacks, belonged to a child who lived in this very apartment back in the fifties. After some long and patient investigative work, she is able to return the box to its rightful owner. Amelie, however, doesn’t make her presence known; she puts the box in a phone booth, and rings the phone from another booth, in hopes that the man, passing by, will pick up the phone. Sure enough, he does, and a few seconds later, finds the box, and his lovely childhood memories come flooding back to him.

This event gives Amelie a new outlook on life. She soon tries to help other people out, including the people in her place of work, a local coffee shop. She successfully gets the lonely hypochondriac woman at the cigarette counter a love interest, although the love interest, a man obsessive over his ex-girlfriend, who also works at the coffee shop, wouldn’t be my first choice if I were to fix someone up with a date. And she also helps out a few other supporting characters along the way, including a blind man that she often sees at the subway station.

The inevitable romantic interest pops up soon afterwards, in the form of a man with an odd hobby. He likes to pick up leftover and thrown-away photos (or scraps and pieces of photos) from photo booths, and collect them in a scrapbook. Amelie frequently passes by the fellow scrounging around underneath the booth, and one day they exchange a rather knowing, if unexplainable, glance -- the narration implies that the two of them have had links to each other that they, even now, don’t suspect, which of course tells we viewers that these two are destined for romance. But how????

An event soon after results in the misplacing of the scrapbook. Amelie witnesses this, but is unable to return it to him. So she has to do more investigating. This results in some rather novel ways of getting the guy’s attention, since Amelie is, for the most part, unable to actually confront people face to face. As well, she starts having an infatuation with the guy, which means that, at the same time she is unable to face him normally by creating rather unique ways of getting him to fetch his scrapbook, she is also committing a rather novel form of flirting. Being a happy-go-lucky romantic movie, no points for guessing the ending...... but that’s not a problem with movies of this nature. It shouldn’t be any other way.

Nothing against the film, but I’m somewhat amused that the most popular foreign films of the past few years are really only superficially removed from the sort of glowing product that Hollywood itself makes. What are the most popular foreign films of the past while? Well, there’s this film, Life Is Beautiful, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Life is Beautiful is an uplifting tale of a father who shields his son from the horrors of the Holocaust, even as the whole family is in an actual concentration camp. The film itself has many cute scenes and humorous moments, and it’s ending is suitably uplifting and sad all at the same time, and in the tradition of numerous Hollywood films. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, on the other hand, is basically a very tasteful martial arts epic, far less violent, and far more mythical, than the average martial arts/ action flick, but still pretty accessiable for both martial arts fans and the sorts of people who would go for Star Wars and other mythical/fantasy/action pictures.

The fact is, that if either of these films were made in Hollywood, they’d be seen as pretty decent pictures, nothing more. Some snobby highbrows would probably even say that they’re even less than decent, but typical lower-common-denominator Hollywood. But because they are in a different language, these films are suddenly exotic, and get a slightly different audience, as well as some of the same old audience who decide to take a chance and watch subtitles.

All of the films I’ve mentioned are quite good, and certainly entertaining. But don’t confuse any of them with Bergman, Truffaut, or any of the other greats of world cinema (although Amelie quotes a variation of what Truffaut apparently said about one experience of being at a movie theatre). Don’t even confuse them with some of the arty stuff that comes out currently. Ameilie and others of its ilk are entertainments; foriegn-language entertainments, sure, but entertainments all the same. I have a feeling that many people who watch Amelie and others will never find themselves watching Cries and Whispers, unless they are particularly adventurous.

Amelie is actually a little more cutting edge in some respects. The direction frequently takes flights of fancy, and some of the images are bizarrely memorable, although for the most part they don’t serve any purpose other than to be different. (One of the pictures that the collector possesses actually speaks to him at one point!) I must say, though, that I liked the effect of Amelie disintegrating into a puddle of water during a scene in which she encounters her crush at the cafe. It’d look out of place in a “normal” movie, but, for this movie, no problem!! There's also a very interesting montage -- Amelie imagines how many people are having orgasms at this very second, and we actually get to see all fifteen!! Not bad!!! This prompted Roger Ebert to groan and moan that the philistines at the MPAA rated this movie R because of this "innocent" scene. Ah, don't know about you, but I doubt that a Middle American mom would appreciate her thirteen year old going unaccompanied to a movie in which fifteen people have loud and screaming orgasms.......... That's too much for poor, and lonely single male and female adults to witness, let alone an immature child!!! Too much joy in one room for us!!

And some portions of the story are pretty wacky and deranged. The scenes of Amelie’s youth are pretty sick (but in a funny way) if you think about it, especially the unfortunate death of Amelie’s mother. Obsessive fans of royalty will probably not like the whole idea of Princess Di’s death being used as a frivolous plot thread. And Amelie can be quite the troublemaker -- witness her revenge against the owner of the vegetable stand, who constantly insults his young employee.

Amelie is actually a bit of a sad person as far as I’m concerned. It’s pretty difficult, I’d say, to live alone, without many relationships, or even without the courage to do something about that. It takes an awful long time for her to just get together with the collector... mainly because she does all in her power to keep her distance, to play games with him -- although it must be said that her games look exactly like games played by someone who is merely afraid to make contact, rather than by someone who is particularly devious. Amelie might be a bit frustrating, but she’s obviously someone with an interesting imagination, and isn’t out to hurt anyone -- unless they really deserve it of course.

What’s interesting is that she wants to make others happy -- but can’t make herself happy. With all the useless excuses for people out there, someone who actually does have a sense of justice and fair play, and good intentions, and yet is lonely...... shouldn’t she be the one who deserves some sort of happiness and love????

Overall, Amelie is a pretty nice movie. Amelie is a cute girl, and certainly is quirky enough, and sweet enough, to be a worthwhile interest for anyone who actually wants to meet an interesting gal for a change. The movie itself is a bit odd, a bit strange, not exactly heavy, but certainly a good view. The only reason I didn’t get totally clobbered by this picture was probably because I am the depressing, cynical sort -- oh well. In any case, Amelie is an eccentric but fairly charming film.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie